Forty-nine states tracking your prescriptions in databases

Forty-nine states are tracking all of your prescriptions in state-run databases and politicians and law enforcement hope to make Missouri the 50th state. Lawmakers say this is necessary to combat prescription pain-killer abuse, but this is a nothing more than an invasion of privacy. Who wants the government to know what medicine you take? From Reason:

Missouri is the only state in America without a prescription drug database, which The New York Times describes as “the primary tool the other 49 states use to identify people who acquire excess prescriptions for addictive

painkillers and tranquilizers,” as well as the doctors who over prescribe them. In 49 states, the government is keeping track of what prescription medications you take.

That’s a little disconcerting, no? While these databases are touted as ways to combat prescription painkiller abuse and trafficking, most states require doctors and/or pharmacists to report prescriptions for any number of medications, including AHDH and anti-anxiety drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Xanax. This database then can, and sometimes must, be consulted by future physicians prescribing drugs.

Missouri state Sen. Rob Schaaf (R-District 34) and a small group of other legislators have been fighting against pressure—from medical groups, “members of Congress from neighboring states,” the White House, and drugmakers—to institute such a database. Schaaf, a family physician, says allowing a government database of prescription drug records is a privacy violation.